Author Archives: Grace

Café de Hong Kong

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This pic may not look all that but trust me this Black Sesame Seed shake is to die for. The most delicious drink I’ve had in absolute ages!

Cheap eats are a dime a dozen in Chinatown especially with all the buffets suddenly popping up all over the place (including one that sadly replaced one of my favourite yum cha places Laureate 🙁 ) however Café de Hong Kong, which is not a buffet, delivers a little something different, as Timeout points out, from spag bol to creamy condensed milk on thick toast. Yum. But yes it is a Chinese restaurant so there are also loads of other traditional favourites on the dining menu too. Plus, in addition to the delicious Black Sesame Seed shake (a must try) there is a huge selection of bubble tea so everyone should find something to their satisfaction on the menu.

Its cheap, its fast, its tasty. Don’t think I really need to say much more than that.

The Neil and Nathan Show

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Well it was supposed to be The Neil and Nathan Show ….

Pauline, Neil and Nathan and I have been trying to sort out a date for a group of us to head to Church but could never come up with a Sunday when we were all available so someone came up with the idea of a Friday night out instead. Although Nathan mysteriously did not turn up the night had to go on!

James and Rita also joined us for the festivities and although I had been promised we’d be going out dancing that night … as it turned out neither Pauline or I were in much of a condition to do so. I was knocked out by one mere slip of a cocktail (I must learn to avoid that evil blue Curaçao stuff) and Pauline … well let’s just say she was in quite a happy mood.

We ended up moving from Porterhouse, to Wagamama (ever so briefly – we were going to grab some dinner but then Ian turned up at just the moment we were going to be seated and as he was only staying for one drink it felt a bit rude not to join him), to the Maple Leaf for a drink with Ian and his housemate, (after which time Rita left us at the to join her friend at Gaunabara. I must make it there some time!) to All Bar One for another round of drinks and then finally Café Pacifico for a very late dinner.

It was a strange night but a fun night.

Häagen-Dazs

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This is ridiculous. Before March this year I don’t think I’ve ever been to the Haagen-Dazs in Leicester Square for dessert before and tonight I went again for the third time in about 6-7 weeks! (The last time I went was with Rehana after we saw Thriller Live!)

I’m not complaining though because I LOVE ice-cream. Tonight I went with Caro, Nate and Philippe. We’d actually just had dinner at Wagamama’s but just as I was getting excited about ordering their white chocolate ginger cheesecake somehow the idea of Häagen-Dazs came up!

At least the menu at Häagen-Dazs has changed now to reflect more spring/summer flavours. This time I decided to go with crepes to go with my ice-cream – it was a very good decision actually. Very yummy. Very filling.

Hilariously Philippe actually went for 4 scoops of ice-cream!! I must admit I was a bit jealous …

Teesh’s London Day 04

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Teesh has been fairly lucky with the weather in London this weekend. Before she got on to her eurostar train to Brussels we spent a couple of hours taking a walk in Kensington Gardens/Hyde Park. It was nice enough that people were even sailing in the Round Pond … with remote controlled boats that is!

Teesh’s London Day 03

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It was a rather long day on our feet today despite the fact it was nearly noon by the time we left the shoebox. We were both exhausted from last night!

We started with a visit to Portobello Road Markets, as you do. As I expected the time of day we were setting of from home meant we ran into a lot of other tourists also visiting Portobello Road Markets. Even though you can never really say that there is an off-peak time on a Saturday in Notting Hill we probably couldn’t have picked a more peak time! Weaving and ducking our way past people we came across the funniest shop window display ever – funny because they used actual real live bunnies as part of the display. I don’t know if it was animal cruelty or not because the bunnies seemed happy enough to be in the display but it was utterly cute! They were so fluffy!

Teesh and I took our time making our way down Portobello Road. She took quite a liking to the antique section of the markets actually and by the time we made it to the Hummingbird Bakery we were more than ready for a break and a sugar rush! The line, though extended out the door and then some, wasn’t as long as normal so we decided it was worth the wait for the delicious cupcakes that the Hummingbird Bakery is famous for. As cute as some of the designed cupcakes were (Teesh went for one with a giraffe on it) I couldn’t resist a red velvet number. Yum.

After that we picked up our speed a bit as we had an appointment at the British Museum for one of their highlight tours. Quickly downing a gorgeous chicken schnitzel sandwich for lunch from the german meat barbecue van we rushed, as much as one can rush through the Notting Hill crowds, over to the British Museum. The British Museum was very busy when we got there but we only had about 15 people on our tour. Probably due to the fact that you had to pay £9 for the 90 minute tour.

We were wondering how they would stop interlopers from joining the tour gratis and they do this by giving you bright yellow badges to wear. That didn’t stop people joining us but interestingly if they did join us they didn’t stay around for very long – I’m not sure why because our tour guide was brilliant.

We had the most amazing tour guide – a guy called William Forrester. I think he said he’d being doing these sorts of tours with the British Museum for at least 15 years so he certainly knew his stuff. William took us around to see the Rosetta Stone, Mexican carvings, the Easter Island statue, Ptahshepses’ tomb, the winged bulls from Khorsabad, the lion hunt reliefs from Nineveh and the Parthenon sculptures. I would like to spend pages and pages re-telling the stories that William told us but I’d be here all day. In my view the £9 was totally worth it for the tour. William is the best kind of tour guide – someone who inspires me to go out and read up more on what we learned today. I just can’t say enough how interesting his interpretations were. Teesh and I later ran into him at the bookshop and he was even then still asking how he could help us. A nicer man you couldn’t meet.

Once the British Museum closed we headed over to Harrods to hunt down some souvenirs. The best thing about Harrods has to be its Food Halls. You could probably spend hours gazing at all the goods on display. Teesh was absolutely outstanded by them. I must admit they are very attractive and as it was nearing closing time we could walk around in almost peace. Though that’s not to say that the tourists were particularly calm around the Diana and Dodi memorial. It was madness and I felt rather disrespectful.

By the time we were done in Harrods we’d been on our feet non-stop for nearly nine hours and our feet were done in so we headed to my local Zizzi’s for some delicious lasagna and baked pasta. Mmm …

Soho through new eyes

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The nice thing about talking to someone who is travelling for the first time is that you get to see everything through new eyes again. I’m not saying I’m jaded or anything like that but when talking to Teesh I realise just how much I take for granted. Its great to see her see the wonder in everything – even somewhere like Soho, which to me is sometimes just a place to hang out. I guess to someone who has never been to Soho the energy and the people and the atmosphere is something very different.

We were walking around tonight and she just couldn’t help but express her amazement at all the goings on. We were having so much fun just wondering around looking at everyone that it wasn’t until 11 that we sat down for some food! Most places were still packed at that time of night but we found a cute little cafe called Cafe Emm.

If you want reasonably priced and traditional British food Cafe Emm is the place to come. I had a gorgeous steak and ale pie that I would well recommend.

Inside the place was fairly buzzing even at 11 at night however we sat outside because Teesh is a smoker but also so we could people watch. However it almost felt like we were the ones being watched! Still, we did see quite a few interesting things like some guy giving a car the moon for absolutely no reason at all that we could see, lots of couples making out to put it bluntly right in front of us, and even a few ambulance pick ups. Sadly no celebs out on the town though … must have been too early still for them.

Haisrpay

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After the fantastic experience that was Priscilla on Monday night I knew coming into Hairspray tonight that it was always going to be hard for it to compete. However Hairspray is still one of the bigger musicals in town at the moment so I think it did hold its own (though I still loved Priscilla more.)

I saw the movie a little while ago and because I was impressed enough with the movie version this inspired me to bring Teesh along to see the musical. Hairspray deals with all sorts of diversity issues from the obvious race issue to the image issue (that is, that everyone has to be body perfect) so not only is it a good musical it is also a story with morals of tolerance and acceptance. Chubby teen Tracy Turnblad is the central character of the show and we follow her as she attempts to join the Corny Collins Show, a popular TV dance/music show, win the boy, and, most importantly, end racial segregation.

One of the things that Hairspray didn’t have going for it was the big party hits that Priscilla had so some of the musical pieces to me lacked a bit of the energy that Priscilla had. Though delivered well some of the songs seemed to stretch on and on. However, what really impressed me was that the set was constantly moving even in the middle of the songs so there was always something to keep your eye on.

Hairspray is a physically demanding show and this was most telling on the lead female, Leanne Jones, who played Tracy. At the beginning of the show she was really hitting her numbers and when the last, and arguably the biggest song of the night You Can’t Stop The Beat, came on she really lagged and could barely even lift her arms. Poor thing! She was pretty good anyway despite the lack of energy at the end however the contrast between her and her best friend, who undergoes a transformation from mousey shy girl to vibrant and ball of energy, was very dramatic. Otherwise the cast were superb and you felt like you were transported back into the 60s they were so energetic.

Interestingly the crowd really got into the musical tonight with lots of cheering and cat-calling. Great atmosphere. At one point this infected even the cast as Tracy’s parents, played by Michael Ball (brilliant as her mother) and Nigel Planer, the comic foil, were singing a duet of sorts, a rather funny song, and it was all they could do to stop themselves from laughing. It was actually quite charming.

In fact, charming is how I’d describe Hairspray. It’s the musical with the big heart.

Teesh Arrives!

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A childhood friend of mine, Teesh, arrived in the early hours of this morning. She’s doing a kind of trip of a lifetime thing over here and has come up with a grueling schedule for herself. I’m going to be traveling half of it with her so I guess its grueling for me too! Ha ha. In between I’ll be working a few days to pay for my travel …

The planning of this trip, 45 days all up for her, has been going on for the last nearly a year and yet it has come around so quickly! I’ll be entertaining her for a few days in London before she heads off for her first stop in Brussels and then we’ll meet up in about a week’s time in Lucerne. Gotta love how the traveling thing works over here!

Well, its lunch time and I’ve been up for over eight hours already, having gone to pick up Teesh at the airport at stupid o’clock (not her fault but for some reason lots of flights from Oz always arrive at 5.30am, I’m surprised I haven’t fallen asleep yet … I shouldn’t be complaining though because I’m not the one that’s flown for over 24 hours … and poor Teesh has to stay up until at least 10.30pm tonight so we can go see Hairspray! At least she’s looking pretty awake in this photo!

Priscilla Queen of the Desert – The Musical

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Wow! There were so many good things about tonight’s performance of Priscilla Queen of the Desert – The Musical that I don’t even know where to start! I’ve been to quite a few musicals in my time here in London but its been a while since I’ve been to a huge production like Priscilla. Probably the last “big” show I went to was Billy Elliot in December last year but even that production paled in comparison to tonight’s show. This is definitely one of the best shows I’ve seen EVER. Big call I know but so true.

I guess I should start by saying that I’ve never seen the movie so at least from that perspective I was coming to the show with no preconceptions. However, I was pleased to see that no “insider” knowledge was needed at all from the movie because all the jokes were pretty well delivered and I could understand even all the insinuated stuff.

Priscilla Queen of the Desert tells the story of how two drag queens (Tick/Mitzi played by Jason Donovan and Adam/Felicia played by Oliver Thornton) and an older more mature transexual (Bernadette formerly known as Farrah Forceitin – heh heh – played by Tony Sheldon) find themselves making a journey in a big bus, who they lovingly name Priscilla, to perform at a casino in Alice Springs. This story really gave the producers/writers lots of room to deliver some really big creative musical numbers and this creativity flowed through the music, the costumer, the set and not to mention the hugely, but very welcome, over the top performances.

Pauline and I knew we were in for a great time tonight from the start. The crowd was all a buzz and definitely huge energy levels before the show even started. We were surrounded by a few drag queens I’m fairly sure and there was on particularly vocal person behind us, whom I now call Poodle Bag after his/her well poodle bag, who gave Pauline and I quite a few giggles outside of those from the show! I was nearly crying after one particularly funny series of comments.

We were sitting in the grand circle and though I normally prefer to sit in the stalls it actually turned out perfectly because many of the pieces were set up high (either on top of the bus or other) so we were practically eye level with the performers. Be warned if you’re near the front at the stalls because you may get dragged up on stage just after half time to do a jig – and it was a pretty big jig as well!

The pre-show announcement had the touch of the droll as well when after asking everyone to ensure phones were silent and no recording etc. the audience were asked “to put their wigs under their chairs” for the benefit of the rest of the audience!

I could go on and on and on about the musical it was that good. The soundtrack to the musical was pure and utter brilliance with all the big party and disco hits making an appearance including Downtown, What’s Love Got To Do With It?, Don’t Leave Me This Way, I Say A Little Prayer, I Love The Nightlife, I Will Survive, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, Boogie Wonderland, and Finally. All the anthems so to speak. If they ever release a soundtrack I’m sure they’ll have no problems getting copies out the door!

Priscilla was a combination of singing, dancing and of course performing. The essence of the drag performer is lyp-synching and though the three male leads do some original singing of their own (and at a very good level) in the bigger performance pieces the show called them to do lyp-synching. Rather than try to cover-this up the show came up with the idea of The Three Divas – who were in essence three woman suspended on ropes high above the stage who had kick-ass voices and performed at the same time as the “performance” was going on below. It worked fantastically in part because the male leads and the Divas worked very well in tandem together but also the Divas had really great strong soulful voices. The cast were fantastic and somehow kept the energy up for the whole show – I don’t know how they managed because each piece made me tired just watching it! That’s not to say that every piece was huge – the solos, though softer and heart-rending, were no less powerful than the big party pieces. The show also kept us laughing with many fantastic one-liners and loved the jokes about Neighbours and Charlene/Scott!

I spoke of costumes earlier and if this musical doesn’t win some sort of prize for costumers then the judges must definitely be blind. If you think big, Priscilla delivered it bigger. From head to toe all the costumes were just outrageous but so beautiful and an absolutely pleasure to the eye (loved loved loved the shoes!) The same could be said of the set which was really well designed and managed. The musical also really made the most of the technology to them including the bus being completely covered in LED lighting which led to an interesting scene where the bus was “painted” pink!

This is the kind of show that I would definitely see again. But for now the next thing I’ll do is hire the movie out and see how the musical compares!

Saturday Night Out – Chino Latino and Motion

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It may be a bit sad but its not often that I’ll go out on a Saturday night. Yes I’ll go out for dinner and maybe drinks but the night normally stops there. Tonight Pauline and I decided to head out dancing after dinner to make a proper night of it. If this happens at all its normally on a school night or Friday night.

Cruising through some dinner options on Top Table I came across Chino Latino which is a modern pan-asian bar/restaurant located in the Riverbank Park Plaza Hotel on Albert Embankment near Vauxhall. I was worried that being a Saturday there wouldn’t be too many people in the restaurant but surprisingly there were a few people about. Probably thanks due to the London Marathon which is being run later today.

The menu at Chino Latino includes sushi, dim sum, tempura and main dishes. I was hoping for something a bit spectacular like we got at Sushi Samba in New York but on that aspect I was a bit disappointed. The menu selections were okay though nothing I’ve seen before. The Latin/Asian combo I was after just wasn’t there – or if it was it wasn’t really spelt out. However, that was the only disappointment of the night. This may seem a bit harsh because in fairness there are some very good dishes on the menu.

At Chino Latino they emphasis the sharing aspect of the meal and though I’m sure we could have gone ahead and ordered individually I suspect, based on some reviews I’ve read, they really don’t like that so Pauline and I chose dishes to share. We weren’t particularly adventurous in our menu selections and didn’t opt for any of the sushi dishes, where I suspect most of the latin influence when into, and I refused to pay 3x the price for dim sum dishes so we went with shredded duck salad with cucumber, chilli, spring onion and hoi sin sauce (basically, crispy duck pancake) and tempura prawn with creamy chilli sauce for our starters. Both were well presented and its obvious great care was taken in preparing the dishes. I particularly liked the Tempura Prawn which was topped with dustings of wasabi which, in combination with the creamy chilli sauce, was very yummy. I could have snacked on that all night!

For our mains we went with a sirloin steak on hot rocks and miniature chicken. I wish I could remember the exact descriptions of our main meals but I can’t! Both were pretty good though Pauline preferred the chicken. For me both dishes were equally tasty. The hot rocks were indeed hot when they arrived though strangely they didn’t really “cook” the beef much further. From what the waiter said I was expecting it to go from medium to well as it sat there but it didn’t. This didn’t matter so much to me as I normally go for medium in steaks anyway though maybe it put Pauline off a bit as she prefers hers more well done.

After the first two courses and along with my cocktail (cocktails were fairly reasonably at £7.50 though champagne once were a few quid more) I was feeling fairly full. The fact my top was quite tight around my ribs also didn’t help. Heh heh. However, Pauline was in the mood for dessert and I’m not one to turn the third course down specially as they had a pistachio crème brulee on there. I’m always a sucker for a flavoured crème brulee. Pauline went for the dark chocolate fondant which she says was very yummy.

All dishes were very good quality which was pleasing considering the price tags attached to the dishes (e.g. mains ranged from £15 – £35.)

Service at Chino Latino was kind of strange. Fairly attentive without being overbearing (I was gratified that they left us alone at the end of the meal and didn’t try to pester us to keep buying drinks or pressure us into leaving) however I didn’t like the way that the waitresses delivered our dishes. On ever occasion they either plonked the dish on the edges of our table without even attempting to move things around to put them in the centre or waited for us to move things around for them. Price-wise I was glad for the 30% off offer from toptable because it would have otherwise made the food quite expensive – with one cocktail each, three courses and service the bill came to just about £40.

After dinner Pauline and I were trying to work out where we could go dancing. I’m the first one to admit I’m not really one for clubbing and I could probably count the number of times I’ve been out dancing in the last nearly 5 years on four hands. Still, I was quite keen for a groove and we ended up at Motion at Embankment. As it was just gone 11 I think when we got there we had to pay a £10 cover charge, which is something unavoidable at that time of night unless you’ve got on to some guest list. Motion is spread over two and a half floors (the half floor is the toilet level and it has a glass wall that looks out on the basement dance floor with a few couches) with the top floor seemingly for the more casual dancers and those looking more for a bar. The basement floor was where the action was at. The music was a bit boring when we got there (typical house stuff) but it did start to get more interesting as we were leaving. Just a shame there weren’t any guys who really caught my interest! Pauline commented that she felt she was too old to be doing this sort of thing and I would have agreed with her if the music had continued on in the same vein (that is, the house stuff.) Next time we must make sure to choose a better venue.

At least I managed to get the last circle line home though it was a close thing as to which would win first – the circle line getting me home or me getting sick from drinking too much. I know I’m allergic to alcohol and I only had one cocktail and two Smirnoff Ice’s tonight but its no fun to not be drinking! As it was the second Smirnoff was enough to tip me over the edge and I had a very difficult time walking home. I’m just thankful I only had to deal with one guy, who was quite nice and rather a gentleman actually, propositioning me on the walk home. I could barely carry on a conversation with him as it was!